“And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”
“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” ~ John 5:37-40; 45-47
“The Lord Jesus appealed to the Old Testament. He said (v39), “ Ye search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” In other words, Jesus was saying, “The Old Testament was written about Me.” He continues, “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” A few verses further on He completes the argument with a devastating comparison: “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses [that is, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy] ye would have believed me; for he [Moses] wrote of me.” Thus again He makes the claim to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. But now He goes much further and says, “But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”
“Let us understand clearly what this means. We will paraphrase it: If you do not believe the writings of Moses, Genesis to Deuteronomy, Christ says that you never will be able to believe Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the four gospels.”
“It is an astounding claim and one that explains many things. The Lord says that faith cannot pick and choose within the Word of God. You have to take the whole of the revelation of God or you cannot have any of it. The Lord says that failure to believe the earlier books of the Bible would make it impossible to believe the gospel story. It is a tremendous revelation of the nature of the evil heart of unbelief. It is also a most revealing comment on why Satan levels so many attacks upon the book of Genesis. The Devil knows that if he can create unbelief in the beginning of the Word of God, he has made it impossible for any man to trust in the heart and center of the Word of God, for Jesus Christ, the living Word, and the Bible, all of it, the written Word are one. It is impossible to separate them.”
Barnhouse, Donald Gray. Expositions of Bible Doctrines Taking the Epistle to the Romans as a Point of Departure. Vol. 1. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, n.d. 34-35. 4 vols. Print.
